When you need a SQL database fast, the cloud is the best way to go. Azure provides a SQL database as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that eliminates the need to get an entire SQL Server up and running.

I don't know if this is the right place for this question or not but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I have a project in mind that requires a database and I would like to begin ...

Database connectivity gives desktop and Web applications much of their value. .NET developers have products and framework objects that can tie a front-end application to SQL Server, MySQL, Sybase, ...